Conversations
by Instinct
Summary: A somewhat different ending to U2: Among Thieves as Nathan Drake explores his future as a treasure-hunter and his past relationships in conversations with Chloe and Elena. One-shot.


Conversations

By Instinct

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Summary: I couldn't get this scene out of my mind. Since I couldn't get the scene out of my mind, I had to write it up, and hopefully it will go away now!

Rated **M** for swearing and suggestiveness.

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"Do you love her?"

Nate smiled bitterly at the question, looking upon the blonde journalist, ignoring the scrutinising look Chloe was giving him.

"No." He answered, finally, still watching as Sully walked her slowly out of the house, where she had been bed-ridden for days.

"Please don't lie to me Nate. It's okay if you do love her. Good, even." Chloe said, with what Nate thought was the most sincerity he had ever heard in her voice.

"I don't. I am very fond of her." He hesitated. "And I love aspects about her." Chloe stiffened almost imperceptibly. "But I don't love all her aspects. She is still, like you said, the white-bread picket-fence type of girl. And I could never handle that."

Her blue shining eyes looked at him, into him. "Handle what?"

"Just...everything. I'm not like her, I want to see the world and find its treasures." Nate said, turning to look at her.

"Is that what she told you when she broke up with you before all this ever happened?" Chloe asked gently. Nate laughed.

"No, no. She wanted to go 'career', uncover the world's greatest corruptions and evils. Elena Fisher, human spotlight, a Pulitzer Prize in each hand." He said, looking down absently at the grave of Schäfer.

"And you'd be what, the thorn in her side?" The black haired woman asked scornfully.

"More like the boulder in her way, I think." Nate said, smiling as he watched Sully tease Elena about her current crippled state, as he tap-danced in front of the laughing woman. "So she left, and I was hurt. I guess I had been more into her than I thought. You know how it is with me. I defeat the bad guys, save the world, and think I'm always entitled to the girl, too." He gave her a self-deprecating grin. "But I don't love her, Chloe."

"You had me." Chloe said then, defiantly, looking up into his hazel eyes.

"What?"

"You had me. We had each other. You were 'entitled' to me. And you still left!" She said, and Nate couldn't mistake the hurt in her voice, and he clenched his fist involuntarily. He _hated _seeing her like this, hated seeing how vulnerable he'd made the strong and feisty woman he admired.

"Chloe.." He started slowly, and then stopped, not knowing what to say.

"I don't know if I want to hear this." She muttered, kicking the dust with her boots.

"Listen..what we had was great, fantastic. But I never felt that we had more than lust...we locked ourselves away in a hotel room for a month, and I was getting itchy. And that doesn't excuse the way that I left, I know that."

"You didn't even have the balls to say it was over, Nate." Chloe told him, crossing her arms, her eyes asking him why.

"I know." He let out a short bitter laugh. "No courage with women, always the way. I thought that if I had to say goodbye, I'd never end up leaving. I'd become a hermit, and my whole life would revolve around you. I still had so much to do Chloe, so much to see."

"You know me, Drake! You know I'm not a fucking nympho. You know I'm like you! I travelled the world with you. I wanted to see it all with you. You know we are both the opposite of her!" She gestured angrily to Elena, her hair whipping around her face.

She had hoped he would get angry, would argue back, would say something in the heat of the moment that would give her more reason to feel angry, more righteous anger to build up and then flame out, but he only nodded, looking defeated.

"I should have known better, I know. I would say sorry if I thought it would help."

"It really frightens you, doesn't it?" Chloe said, her anger exhausted suddenly, leaving her only feeling tired. The heat of the sun bore down on both of them.

"What?"

"Getting locked in. Commitment. Not getting to see the world, and continue your bizarre archaeologist slash thief hero lifestyle." Her lips curled in a playful smile, one that Nate was more than pleased to see.

He let out a heavy sigh before giving his familiar grin. "Yeah, I guess so."

"I want to be with you, Nate." Chloe said firmly.

Nate looked at her, trying to hide the thoughts that ran through his mind. "Chloe.." He started, and she immediately recognised it as his conciliatory negative tone, his "I'm really sorry but no." voice.

"No, Nate. I'm not trying to fucking lock you down! We're not having a baby, we're not getting married, I'm not trying to get us to buy a house together. I just want to be with you on your adventures, and I know there is something between us."

He breathed in and out slowly, heavily. Their location high above sea level meant that there was little oxygen.

"Please..?" She asked him, taking his hands in her own, and he was struck to see the pleading look on her face, looking so out of place of the thief.

Memories of their time together, of their most recent adventure, flashed through his mind.

"No." He whispered. His hands were dropped suddenly as Chloe whirled about in anger, running her hand through her black hair. "Goddammit, Nate!" She exclaimed so loudly that Elena and Sully turned around to look with curious faces.

"I'm sorry, Chloe." Nathan said quietly. "I can't trust you."

"Trust me?! You're the one who left me!" She shouted in his face.

His brow creased, and he felt his anger simmer up. "Fuck you, Chloe." Chloe looked at him incredulously, never having seen this angry.

"You were partly the reason I spent three months in prison. I went through fucking everything to try and save you on the train, only to be turned away. I almost died because of you Chloe." He told her quietly, his voice dangerously low.

"Now hang on a minu-" She started.

"I can't go on adventures, can't rob museums or banks, can't do anything if I don't know that my associates have my back. You are only interested in yourself, Chloe. Jeff is dying? Oh shit, I'd best make sure my cover isn't blown. Nate is looking like a carcass having blown his way through half the train to try and get to you? Oh well fuck him, I don't need his 'bloody heroics', I'd rather fuck Flynn." He said, imitating her voice. "Lazarevic almost has the Stone and the whole world is in danger? Ooh, I think we'd better leave this place and go home, Nate."

"I never did anything with Flynn-" She tried to retort, his words cutting through her.

"Y'know, for all your bitching about Elena, at least she always has my back, Chloe. She's not always me me me." He said, his voice rising. Elena and Sully watched on, shocked. Then, as suddenly as he was angered, he deflated, looking up into the skies and then looking as if all the world's burdens were upon his shoulders. "I'm sorry, Chloe. But honour among thieves isn't just a saying, its a principle." And with that, he walked away, away from Schäfer's grave, away from Elena and Sully's gazes and away from Chloe's watery eyes.

* * *

"How you doing?" The soft tones of Elena disturbed him as he sat, legs dangling over the cliffs, looking over the beautiful mountain landscapes of Tibet. He turned his head suddenly to see her leaning on a crutch, looking at him with her familiar playful smile.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" He said as he stood, replacing the crutch with his own body weight as she leaned on him and helped her to sit down. They sat together watching the sun fall.

"I don't know, you seemed to be worse off than me earlier." She said, poking him jokingly in the side, as if hoping that poke would take away his bad mood.

He smiled thinly. "Yeah, guess so. I need to apologise. I shouldn't have lost my temper."

"Mmm." Elena hummed. "It's been a trying few days, nobody could blame you."

"Mmm." He echoed, leaning back onto the ground so he could watch the sky, his head resting on his hands.

"So, are you okay?" She asked again.

"Been better." He said truthfully. "Just thinking about what to do next."

"The wandering adventurer Nathan Drake has run out of adventures?"

"It's the aftermath of the climax, always the most depressing time. That's why all the books and movies end there."

"The aftermath of the climax is a great time for a woman, Nate. Cuddles and pillow talk can't be beat." Elena said, teasingly, looking down on him.

Nate laughed loudly. "Who are you and what have you done with Elena?" He said, chuckling as she stuck her tongue out in response.

He watched as she lay beside him, on her side, his eyes moving to stare resolutely at the orange sky as he felt her gaze settle on him.

"What will you do?" He asked curiously after he grew uncomfortable with the silence and her staring.

"Not sure, either." She answered. "I guess I've got a big report of Lazarevic to write and publicise, though I guess I'll have to make up the circumstances of his death. 'NATO wrong about fugitive war criminal's death, dies in Tibet instead' doesn't  
like a huge story though. I think I can link him with the destruction in Nepal though, so it's not all bad."

"And then?" Nate asked.

"And then onto the next big story, I guess. You know, Nate, you do deliver big stories, but I wish they weren't so big as to be completely unbelievable to the public. El Dorado and Shambala are more likely to be in the tabloids than in any respectable broadsheet." She said, pretending to be reproachful.

He gave her a smile, but didn't reply before turning back to the ethereal sunset. After a few minutes silence she spoke again.

"I'm sorry about leaving you, Nate." She said, her voice tight.

Nate thought it had sounded physically painful for her to say that, and smiled inwardly at the reluctant outpouring of emotion. "S'alright. Time heals everything." He told her, almost managing to pull off the air of nonchalance. "My work is important to me too, in a different way." The treasure-hunter said.

"I think your better at your work than I am at mine."

"Nonsense." He replied. "Anyone can shoot a gun, it takes guts to uncover the evils of the world and show them for the public to judge." He felt her smile at his words.

"You don't think we could try aga-?" She started.

"No." Nate cut her off quickly, knowing what she was about to say. "We're different people, Elena, and in a different world, a world where I was a devoted house-husband or brilliant cameraman, or where you were a treasure hunter with a skewed set of morals, we would get along like a house on fire. But in this world..." He trailed off.

She was silent then, thinking on his words, then she reached out and ran her soft fingers down his coarse cheek. "I sometimes think I love you, Nate. And then, sometimes, I'm absolutely sure I don't."

His breath hitched at her touch and her words. "I think its probably best if you didn't love me, Elena. My pension scheme is a bitch, and no dental plan either."

Elena laughed, but it was an empty laugh. "So what will you do, Nate? Keep treasure-hunting, but with nobody to love, because the good girls are too good and the bad girls are too bad?"

Her words cut through him, hurt him more than he could ever admit. "Yeah, I guess so. It would seem a lonely life, but its worked out decently so far. I hunt gold and artifacts and I hunt history and mystery. Love has no place."

And with that, he stood, and the evening turned to night, and the cool breeze turned into a sharp cold. "I'll get Sully to come pick you up." Nate said as he left her. Elena only shivered, her eyes roving over the beautiful view that lay before her, and she was left wondering why the splendour of it all seemed so alien.

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The End

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I liked Chloe's character during the game, and I recognise that her character was, in essence, a self-serving one, and to be honest the reactions to her selfish actions and dialogue were pretty much perfect, but I wanted to explore angry Drake a little more. The piece is also somewhat of a reflection on how Drake's character and lifestyle is completely unsuited to any meaningful romance, which makes me curious as to how they are going to pull off Nate/Elena in the inevitable Uncharted 3.

Lots of love to Naughty Dog for the phenomenal games they've put out on PS1, 2 and 3.


End file.
